GREAT FALLS — In this week's MTN Sports girls basketball power rankings, Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine checked in at No. 6 in Class C.
Sporting an 8-1 record, the Bearcats have been led to this point by a younger core, as the team only has three seniors.
This current Bearcats group will for the most part be playing together for a while, and a few key players said that excites them.
"We've been looking forward to these years of our life for a long time," sophomore BriElla Becker said following Friday night's 54-39 win over Belt. "We're super excited, so each year we're looking forward to seeing what we can do as a team, and just build and grow together."
"Since we're all young, you kind of can go higher and everything, so it's good," freshman Ella smith said. "It's going to be nice with all of us young girls coming up."
"We've been working on a lot of things from the very beginning of the year," twin freshman Emma Smith said. "We started with summer ball, and we just kind of became a team there."
Highlighting the underclass talent are the Smith twins and Becker, among others.
They all enjoy playing together, and Becker said it's awesome to share the court with the twins.
"We've played together a long time," Becker said. "(Ella and Emma Smith) have gotten lots of experience just from last year (playing as eighth graders). They've learned a lot, so having them on the floor is amazing, and they're just great players. It's awesome."
Becker and Emma Smith both said that the team is super close with one another, and that also is a big factor in the season's success.
"We all have confidence in each other," Becker said. "I know (the twins) can make all their shots, (and) they've got confidence in me. So I think just trusting each other, and knowing that we're going to knock down those shots I think is a big part of it."
"We're all so close together, and we don't judge, we don't be mean, we work as a team," Emma Smith said.
The Bearcats' season ended last year at the Northern C divisional tournament, and all three think with the work the team has put in this season — and the growth they've made — a run at this year's Class C title is possible.
"(Last season's ending) gives us a lot of motivation," Becker said. "We learned a lot from last year, showed what we can do, and we just want to build on that."
"Knowing we could've made it to state, and just wanting to really get there this year," Ella Smith said.
"We're sitting at a really good spot," Emma Smith said. "We know what these teams look like."
Next up for DGSG is a home game in Denton on Friday at 6 p.m. against Winnett-Grass Range.
